A few months ago, when it was announced that Marielle Heller’s Nightbitch would premiere at TIFF, the list of Best Actress Oscar hopefuls expanded to include the film’s star, Amy Adams. Amy’s been nominated multiple times already, some consider her “overdue”, and she’s always reliably solid if not outstanding in her roles.
Nightbitch did not come out of TIFF with a lot of heat though, so Amy’s campaign hasn’t generated a lot of momentum; there are others in the race who’ve been picking up more buzz. Still, it’s certainly not too late, and we know she’s popular within the Academy, so it’ll be interesting to see whether or not, as we get closer to the end of the year, she’ll be able to make up some ground. Or if she even wants to? She’s said that she doesn’t spend her time trying to win Oscars, even though the internet is always getting mad at the fact that she doesn’t have one.
Here she is in London yesterday promoting the film. I’m curious to see if her next stop is back to LA for the Academy Museum Gala on Saturday. As mentioned a few times already, that event has become an important stop during award season because it’s the actual Oscar Academy’s fundraising gala and increasingly a critical campaign stop for contenders.
So there’s actually a chance that Zendaya might show up. I don’t think she’s ever been, but then again she hasn’t yet had a significant shot at an Oscar nomination. This year? Well, there’s Challengers, definitely a pop culture moment several months ago, and the challenge for Challengers is that it may have been released too early and the film’s stars haven’t been actively on the circuit keeping the film top of mind as the race heats up.
Still, both Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor have been submitted in the Best Supporting Actor category and Zendaya was submitted for consideration as Best Actress. And they wouldn’t have submitted if there wasn’t some hope there, right? So we could see Z at the Museum Gala, which is a win for us because you know that outfit will not disappoint.
Speaking of the cast of Challengers and the Oscars, though…
I posted earlier this week about how the Oscars are retooling their format and trying to find a way to involve more celebrities in the show without an official host. If they’re trying to attract a younger audience and if they know what they’re doing, they should already have reached out to Zendaya, Mike, and Josh to participate in some way in the show. If they so much as hint at that three-way bed scene from the film, or the “tennis is a relationship” scene, or the goddamn churro scene that everyone has blown their load over, TikTok will lose its f-cking mind. Please tell me the Oscar producers are already on this but if they aren’t, you can have this one for free!
Also attached – Zendaya and Darnell (who can reprise his role as umpire at the Oscars) out and about in LA yesterday.
